Captain Planet, I think I already said this, was one of the TV series I recall watching with more interest back in the early 90s. I also like the action figures by Tiger a lot, but they are difficult to get complete, since most characters came with several small pieces that went lost most of the time. The most difficult part to be found in many figures is the human-sized ring that was intended to be worn by the boy or girl playing with the figure. All five planeteer children characters had one (the four elements Earth, Water, Air, Fire, plus a fifth element referred to as Heart) which they used to invoke the Captain Planet. The Captain himself had another ring that he always wore.
Having said that, I present today two complete figures, none of them have difficult accessories, quite the opposite, those huge parts are not easily lost, so these two figures are kind of easier to find complete than the rest of the figures.
In a previous entry I
presented Dr. Blight carded, now I present two more villains from
series 1: Hoggish Greedly and Duke Nukem.
Let’s start by Hoggish Greedly, a great figure. It is a human with a face that resembles that of a pig. Not a great metaphor, but you quickly realize this guy is one of the bad ones. It comes with a backpack that could be filled up with water and a gun connected to it by means of a hose. By pressing the backpack, the gun shoots a water beam. To dig in the pig resemblance, the backpack is also decorated with a pig logo.
Duke Nukem is maybe even better, as it is some kind of radioactive man with a very particular and attractive look. In the TV series, he has the superpower of firing radioactive blasts from his hands. In this first version, the gesture on his face is quite menacing, but in the second version, with Hawiian shirt, looks nicer, as he becomes a good guy and helps Captain Planet in some of his missions. The second version is much more difficult to find, as it is an European exclusive.
It has a glow-in-the-dark feature, which is something very valued in action figures, but came without accessories.
FACTS and FIGURES:
- Name: HOGGISH GREEDLY and DUKE NUKEM
- Toy Line: CAPTAIN PLANET and THE PLANETEERS (Wave 1)
- Year: 1990
- Company: Tiger Toys/Kenner (U.S.A.)
- Size of the figures: Around 16 cm
I only ever owned the Geo Cruiser and the Toxic Trap which I used with different toylines. I was always fascinated by the line but I remember it being kind of tough to find the Planeteers and so I never used my money on the figures when at the store. I always found it funny that Duke Nukem from Captain Planet and Duke Nukem of video game fame shared a name. That's a pretty unusual name, right? Unless there is some previous source the name was derived from it seems crazy that two different properties came up with the name at the same time.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Yes, I never asked me that question, but, as you say, maybe there is some preexisting use of the name Duke Nukem, maybe also related to the scientific research on atomic energy in the 40s or afterwards. I never had any figure from this collection as a kid, just recall the cartoons, and not very clearly. It is recently that I got interested in these toys and characters. Cheers!
DeleteHoggish Greedly seems to be chanelling the sweaty Vladimir Harconnan from Dune!
ReplyDeleteH
Hi Hugh!
DeleteThanks for thee comment! True, didn't think about that before, but it is very similar to Baron Harkonnen. Cheers, Juan
Lo que es la serie nunca me llamó mucho la atención, aunque reconozco su valor de concienciación sobre el problema del desperdicio de recursos. Las figuras de los villanos, en cambio, son geniales, muy en la línea de los adversario de las Tortugas Ninja.
ReplyDeleteSuele pasar que en las líneas de figuras humanos contra monstruos los humanos son muy aburridos, y aquí tenemos a cinco planetarios muy parecidos entre si. Los villanos a mi también me llaman más la atención en esta cole. Recuerdo de los dibujos la moraleja final con consejos ecológicos. Gracias por el comentario!
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